The stereotypical American Christmas has stockings filled with candy, trees adorned with tinsel, shining ornaments hanging from a tree, and a quite large man with rosy red cheeks and a snow white beard bringing children toys and joy. However, even in America, there are many diverse ways of celebrating religion this time of year, like the traditional Hanukah celebrations for example. Both in the U.S. and around the world, the celebration of winter’s biggest holiday is as diverse as the world’s population itself.

Germans hide a gherkin, or glass pickle ornament, in the tree and the child who finds it first on Christmas Eve (without knocking the tree down) receives a special gift from their parents.

Since 1974the traditional Christmas dinner in Japan consists of Kentucky fried chicken and mashed potatoes from none other than KFC. They will even order them months in advance to assure that they will get their Christmas dinner.

In the Ukraine, instead of the usual shiny ornaments and tinsel, they decorate their trees with gold and silver spider webs in honor of Arachnid legends. According to that legend, in a very poor family’s home a pinecone fell and took root in the ground. The children of the home were excited because, for once, they would finally have a tree for Christmas. The mother went to sleep that night thinking of how unfortunate it was that they would not be able to decorate their tree. During the night a spider spun its web around the tree and when the sun’s rays touched the webs they turned into silver and gold. Henceforth, the legend was born.

In the Czech Republic, on Christmas morning, single women will take one of their shoes off and throw it over their shoulder from the front porch. If it lands with the toes pointing toward the door, she will find love and be married within the next twelve months.

An Austrian belief of Christmas includes two demons in cohorts with Santa Claus. Krampus, one of the demons, sends naughty children to hell after Perchta, the other, rips their guts out and stuffs them with pebbles and straw. It is said that this level of fear given to the children works far more efficiently than giving them coal in their stockings.

In Spain children feed the Tio de Nadal, a log that will, in theory, poop out the children’s presents on Christmas Eve. Beginning on December 8, the kids begin feeding the log nuts and fruits every day until Christmas. On Christmas day, they beat the log with sticks of their own and candies and other goodies fall out, very much like a piñata.

Norwegians have an interesting tradition as well. Before heading to bed, they hide their brooms and similar cleaning appliances in fear that thieving demons will steal them late Christmas night.

Kiviak is a dish in Greenland eaten on Christmas that consists of Auk, a seabird, wrapped in sealskin and typically buried for around seven months. It is said to taste like matured cheese.

Many Americans envision, just once, having a warm and tropical family vacation for Christmas, but that isn’t anything out of the ordinary for Australia. The typical Australian Christmas is spent on the beaches, barbequing with family, adorned in bikinis and Santa hats.

One of the most well known traditions in North America is to write a letter to Santa and send it in the mail, but where do they go? Canadian “postal elves” volunteer hours of their time, writing back to children for Santa Claus. They successfully write more than two hundred thousand letters back to kids in Canada.

In Cuba, a religious carnival, named Parrandas, is held on Christmas night. This originated from old altar boys running up and down the streets with pots and pans making sure everyone stayed awake for midnight mass.

Traffic isn’t an issue in Caracas, Venezuela, on Christmas morning, unless you are on a pair of roller skates. The streets are closed, citywide, for the whole town to roller skate to mass.

Goblins make it their business to saw down the Earth Tree in Greece. They are almost finished when the twelve days of Christmas arrives. This is the time they escape the underworld and terrorize the human race. They forget of their duties and the tree heals itself, forcing them to start over once they return.

The children of the Yugoslavian Republic sneak up on their mother two weeks before Christmas, tie her to her chair and sing, “Mother’s day, mother’s day, what will you pay to get away?” The mother will then give them their gifts. They repeat the process with their father the next week.

In the Netherlands, one of the famous Christmas icons, Zwarte Piet, is a black-faced, curly-haired helper of Saint Nick. Racial issues involving the depiction of this character forced people to change the back story from an Ethiopian slave saved by Saint Nick into the idea that he was simply “soot-faced” from going down chimneys.

Some people like to honor deceased family members with an ornament or little prayer, but not in Portugal. Families in Portugal will set extra places at the table for Christmas dinner so the souls of the dead a will have a place to sit.

Some of these traditions may seem strange to the average American, but maybe hanging stockings on the mantle above the fireplace is deemed odd to the rest of the world. Regardless of how Christmas is spent, be it a Kentucky Fried Christmas, one with witches or maybe a pooping log, it is always a magical time of year world-wide with families gathering and celebrating their own crazy Christmas traditions.